Left Behind
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: "Ah…" Hiccup rubbed the back of the head. "Sorry, buddy, but I think you should stay here."


**Summary**: "Ah…" Hiccup rubbed the back of the head. "Sorry, buddy, but I think you should stay here."

Missing scene and what happened after from the Legend of the BoneKnapper Dragon short.

Written for misswinterhill/winterhill

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**Left Behind**

By Dark Ice Dragon

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After they'd bundled Snoutlout into the ship, protesting all the way, Hiccup felt something nudge him in the back. He turned around to see Toothless, ears pricked forward.

"Ah…" Hiccup rubbed the back of the head. "Sorry, buddy, but I think you should stay here."

Toothless wilted, ears drooping and shoulders dropping. He nudged Hiccup again.

"I know, I know, but I'm not sure we'll actually _find_ this boneknapper; we're just going with Gobber to make sure he stays out of trouble." Toothless' body language didn't change and he gazed at Hiccup with wide eyes.

Sighing, Hiccup petted him. "We should only be gone for about a week or so." That should be how long it took before Gobber got distracted by something else.

Slowly, one ear moved up. "You can look after everyone while we're away, right?"

The other ear flicked up, and Toothless nodded, the corners of his mouth tilted up in a smile.

"Okay." Grinning, Hiccup petted Toothless and Toothless licked his face entire face with one sweep of the tongue in reply. Okaay, ugh, he was going to need to need to wash his face before they set off.

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Hiccup's ears were ringing by the time he made his way off the boneknapper. He was probably going to be hearing their roars in his head for the next _month_.

He scanned the gathered crowd for the familiar dark shape, Gobber and the boneknappers taking up all of the villagers' attention. It didn't take him long to find Toothless, but when Toothless saw him, he snorted and stalked away.

What…? They hadn't been gone _that_ long. Hiccup counted up the days; yeah, it'd only been a couple of days, and definitely not even close to a week. So why was Toothless mad at him?

It wasn't hard to follow Toothless, his long tail and red tail-fin easily seen against the houses, though he seemed to be sticking to the rougher terrain than the well-worn paths. Hiccup stumbled a few times, and then his peg-leg got caught between some rocks.

"Oh, great," he muttered, looking down. He could see that the bottom part had slipped under the rocks as well, so he couldn't just yank it out if he wanted. There was a sound of stones tumbling against each other, and Hiccup looked up to see Toothless in front of him, staring at his trapped foot. Toothless edged towards him, cocking his head to the left and the right, his eyes always on the rock. He hooked two long claws under it and peeled it back, earth and grass falling away from it as he did so.

"Thanks, buddy," Hiccup said gratefully, and reached a hand out to pet him.

Toothless wrinkled his nose and drew back, shaking his head.

"Toothless…?" The only response he got from that was a lowering of the body, Toothless still moving away from him. "What's wrong?"

To that question, Toothless narrowed his eyes at Hiccup, and jerked his head towards where they'd just come from, growling all the while. Hiccup glanced over his shoulder and saw the group of boneknappers they'd brought back. "Oh, yeah, those are… oooh." He winced. "Aw, c'mon, Toothless," he pleaded, taking a step forward. Toothless lowered his head even more, his ears flat, baring his teeth - he didn't move away though. "You're my best friend. You know that, right? And I _definitely_ prefer your flying compared to theirs."

Slowly, bit by bit, Toothless' ears rose, his posture becoming less guarded and Hiccup used that as a sign to keep going. "And they're far too loud; I'm sure you heard them when we were over a day away." Toothless nodded, one ear flicking down before coming up again. "Y'see? We _had_ to fly on them because our ship had sank; I didn't replace you."

At those words, Toothless perked up completely and bounded towards him, headbutting him gently in the chest. "I'm missed you too, buddy."

They stayed like that for a few seconds before Hiccup's stomach rumbled loudly. "Let's go get something to eat." Side-by-side, they made their way back to the house.

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Er, I was _totally_ going to have a hammerhead whale jumping out of the sea at the end, but I figured that was just a little too cracked and would probably ruin the quiet moment Hiccup and Toothless were having. XDD;;


End file.
